A little village that could ... and did

Once a port of wooden sidewalks and fishing boats, Steveston has grown into a shopping and sailing mecca.
BAILA LAZARUS

I don't know much about cigars. I'll puff on one if it's handed to me to try, but I don't savor it the way an aficionado would. I feel drawn to learn how to hold a wine glass and appreciate its contents more than how to trim a cigar and appreciate its aroma.

I also don't know a lot about paper clay, Buddha boards, runes, chakras, thelassotherapy, basalt stones or sea lions. But, as a journalist, given the opportunity to learn about all of these, while taking in a beautiful sunny day by the water in Steveston, is too good to pass up.

I first got to know Steveston more than 10 years ago when I produced a documentary on the history of Richmond. I know this will sound like a "When-I-was-a-boy...." story, but back then, there were barely any streets, let alone sidewalks. Steveston Landing had two stores and one garbage pail. And the Gulf of Georgia Cannery had some rusty buckets, some smelly tackle and lots of optimism of where things were "going" to be. Being there a few weeks ago was like seeing a little village growing up.

The cannery, though still drafty, now has a full museum exhibit demonstrating what life was like as Steveston grew from a small fishing port to one of the busiest canning harbors in British Columbia. Built in 1894, it was the largest cannery in the province at the turn of the century. It operated in various guises throughout the 20th century but ceased operations in 1979. Now, as a national historic site, the cannery has interactive exhibits allowing visitors to experience a little of Steveston life from more than 100 years ago. The cannery is open from April 1 to Oct. 31, with hourly tours and special events throughout the season. It gets 24,000 visitors a year.

Go south young tourist

Taking advantage of the water's proximity and a developing West Coast preoccupation, whale-watching tours have sprung up in this corner of Richmond. I always thought you had to head north up-island way in order to be lucky enough to see a blow hole from 1,000 paces, but Cedric Tower of Vancouver Whale Watch assuress me that south is the way to go, especially when you have small craft that can go in between some of the smaller islands. His tours head down through the Gulf Islands, accompanied by naturalists, on a choice of four boats (well, he calls them vessels) with the opportunity to see the "jesters" of the sea – sea lions and seals – as well as whales and porpoises. (Porpoises are smaller than dolphins and swim much faster and have rounder faces. Dolphins and porpoises are actually part of the whale family.) If you like, VWW will take you up the Fraser if you've always wanted to see New West from a zodiac. You get to see floating homes in Lander, the Reifel Bird Sanctuary and Finn Slough. Cedric is a really friendly guy who just came back from Antarctica so he knows about water journeys; and best of all, all his boats have washrooms.

From beads to Buddha

Winning in the most-eclectic-craft-store-I've-ever-seen category has to be Steveston Village Gallery. Photographs, furniture, wall hangings, claywork, metalwork, beadwork, paintings and what one would truly call various or sundry fill the small shop on Bayview Street. Being a real interactive gallery, the store also holds painting workshops and is a great place to wander in to chat about local artists.

Along the same lines is Serendipity's Backyard. Not too far away on First Avenue, this place has everything you ever wanted to know about the alternative/spiritual/psychic/karmic side of life. Astrology, tarot, crystals, runes, salt lamps ... they're all here. Including (gasp!) world music. Want to pat the Buddha? Hell, you can buy a Buddha. This is one of those places where the staff really know their merchanidise and, if they don't have what you're looking for, they know where to get it. They also have sections in the store for books on dealing with grief and other self-help needs. Go for five minutes, spend the day. Just don't lift the large salt lamps; you'll get a hernia.

A stoner's therapy

There's nothing I like better after a long day of walking around than to lie on stones and get rocks rubbed on my bare skin. It's an ancient tradition going back to blood-letting times. I know it sounds like I've been reading too much of the Marquis de Sade, but getting yourself stoned could be the type of relaxation you're after. Smooth, flat basalt stones are heated in water and placed under a towel on which you lie. The heat generated from the stones gently warms you until you feel like a cat on top of a radiator. Then a masseuse, using similar stones in the palm of her hand, massages your salt-lamp-induced hernia away. It's truly one of the most relaxing experiences I've had since falling asleep at our last editorial meeting. After the massage, cool marble stones bring you back down to where you really are – not Heaven, but the Raintree Spa. A day spa with the serenity of a Japanese garden, Raintree has a full range of body treatments, including thelassotherapy and rain showers. I think any place that offers an Aphrodisia Workshop is definitely worth a visit.

Sometimes a cigar....

What's that quote about a cigar and a woman? "A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke." Did you know it was Rudyard Kipling who said it first? Groucho came along later to say, "A woman is an occasional pleasure but a cigar is always a smoke." Now you know I'm someone with way too much time on my hands and I don't get out much. Which is a perfect segue to my last stop in Steveston, Robusto cigar shop – the kind of place to just go and relax at the end of a stressful weekend playing golf, and sit back with a flavorful Jimenez or a $46 Toraño. I can't begin to relate the amount I learned about cigars, literally standing on one foot (I had to go to the bathroom). Particularly interesting was finding out that Cubans are not the cigar de rigeur any more, but have been surpassed by those from the Dominican Republic and Honduras; and also that, aside from Latin Americans, Jews are the numero uno ethnic group in cigar production in North America. Having gone through heydays up and down through the 20th century, cigars experienced popularity in the 1990s and again around 2000, first when middle-aged movie stars and then rappers were being seen on the cover of magazines like Smoke. (And I always thought Smoke was a fund-raising calendar for the Firefighters Benevolent Association. I could never understand what Danny Devito was doing on the cover.)

Nowadays, cigar aficionados come in all sexes, backgrounds and age groups and the young owners of Robusto are proud to count 300 members on their database. They're also proud to say they are the sole distributors of Toraño cigars in Canada. Them's no small potatoes considering Carlos Toraño is a Don among cigar families. You know, I don't really see how Jews fit into this whole Latino-mafioso cigar production business but that will have to wait for another article. In the meantime, I'm heading back to Robusto for a good smoke.